


Let's Break A Game

by LexiTheDoubleedge



Series: Melody of Subsumption [3]
Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow, Slut Life (Interactive Fiction)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-04-18
Packaged: 2020-01-12 03:18:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18437930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LexiTheDoubleedge/pseuds/LexiTheDoubleedge
Summary: Emma, Madison and Sophia are all quite surprised when they end up playing in a non-voluntary game.But not as surprised as the people who put them there will be.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Let's Play A Game](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17965286) by [WestOrEast](https://archiveofourown.org/users/WestOrEast/pseuds/WestOrEast). 



> So yeah, I've been keeping busy with other things (to put it mildly), but these ideas just would not leave my head.
> 
> So you get another revenge fic. This story is inspired by WestOrEast's "Let's Play A Game". Enjoyment of that story will most likely diminish your enjoyment of this one, and vice versa.
> 
> The one enemy you can never truly defeat is your own sense of humor.

**The Long Way**

The trio had just left the room when Taylor heard an unexpected voice. "May I suggest an alternative?" it asked.

That was a problem. Because there should not be any other people in here with them. There -hadn't- been any other people in here with them. But another girl had just appeared outside the room, spoken, and then disappeared again.

Taylor started struggling. "Come on Aisha, lemme go."

"No. I'm not done." Aisha replied sulkily.

"No, seriously, this is important!"

***

Lisa watched the screens and frowned. Something was odd here. Those three girls had reacted about the way they'd expected... up until they left the first room. Then something changed. They'd stopped talking. No, they didn't even look at each other.

And they'd split up. Well, that wasn't too surprising.

Emma had gone down to the first floor. She still looked a bit shocky, and kept looking over her shoulder. But she was making a steady pace towards something.

Sophia just looked pissed, and was walking down the second floor hallway with her hands jammed in her pockets.

Madison though? She'd gone up to the third floor and started -skipping-. She'd pause to look in a door every now and then, but didn't stop even when there were obvious boxes.

"Lost telemetry on the bot," Uber announced.

"What? Let me see that." Leet hit a button to swap one of the monitors. "... What the hell?" He could still recognize the machine for what it was, but only because he'd made it. Parts were -melted-. "Looks like it was struck by lightning. Repeatedly."

It was around that time that Taylor arrived at the control room. "Did anyone see where that other girl came from?" she asked.

"What other girl? There wasn't anyone else on any of the cameras," Alec replied.

Lisa blanched as the last fell into place. "Oh shit. Fuck fuck fuck fuck FUCK! I -told- you this was a bad idea, but no, nobody listen to the fucking -Thinker-, there's no way she'd have anything worthwhile to say!"

"Tattletale, what the hell?" Taylor asked.

With everyone distracted by Lisa apparently having some kind of breakdown, no one was really paying attention to Emma grabbing a stepstool, going to the back of one of the science classrooms, opening a box ... and taking out a key.

Sophia, correctly believing that she'd already been outed, phased into her shadow form, went through the wall into the girl's bathrooms... and shortly came back out with a key.

And Madison solved a sliding block puzzle up by the art room... and got a key.

Lisa, of course, saw all of it. Not that it mattered, it was just another sign of how completely screwed they all were.

Someone they hadn't known about had appeared... and then other people started acting with perfect and unspoken coordination.

"There's a _human Master_ in here with us."

**The Short Way**

“And now, the game is _over_ ,” Tattletale intoned, a large grin on her face. “And the winner is… the Monster! He’ll be coming for his prize now.”

[DESTINATION]

**The Silly Way  
-aka-  
Let's Make A Game!**

"Aaand... cut!" Lisa shouted.

Immediately, the liquids started flowing off of Madison and Sophia into their respective containers, while the bot detached itself from Emma and trotted back to it's maintainence bay.

"Oh thank god." Sophia relaxed. "Do me a favor? The next time I agree to do a hypno scene? Just -shoot me- and get it over with. This face is not made to make that face."

"That's what half of your fans are here for," Uber noted.

"Tell my fans they can go fuck themselves."

"Aaand that's what the other half of your fans are here for."

"They can go fuck themselves twice."

Emma tuned out the byplay with the ease of long practice. "So how many more runs have we got left?" Interactive porn was a big thing now, that was why they'd decided on this project, but doing repetitive scenes like this was more draining than a standard shoot.

"Three point two runs," Lisa replied.

"Point two? How can we have point two left?" Emma asked.

"Brian accidentally knocked over a camera on run 5, so we'll need to reshoot a couple of Madison's scenes."

"WHAT?!" Madison squawked, looking over to where Brian (still in his costume) was trying to edge out of the room. "Why you- get back here!"

And that's how the blooper reel got a segment of Madison - still in a cheerleading outfit - chasing the monster around with a nerf bat.

It would later turn out to be so popular that it launched a spinoff series.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "May I suggest an alternative?" - This phrase is so inextricably linked with Fun in my mind that you could erase my memory of writing this, and I'd have a good idea what was coming as soon as I read it.
> 
> human master - It's a reasonable assumption, but I think this would be more likely to get rated as a Thinker ability.
> 
> The Short Way - Sometimes all you really need is one word.
> 
> The Silly Way - If it weren't for this, I'm not sure I'd have bothered. These days I'll take pretty much any Taylor/Trio friendship I can get though. Plus, come on, Madison chasing Grue around with a nerf bat. What's not to love?
> 
> liquids started flowing off of Madison and Sophia - In this one, Sophia's hair isn't bleached. That's paint, held in place by Madison's hydrokinetic power. (Why do I keep coming up with water based abilities for her?) "Hair paint" is something I came up with for an old RP character whose hair was supposed to be undyeable due to magibabble reasons.


	2. Power Information

That's a Taser: Electrokinetic shaker/electrical breaker. In her breaker state, Aria can hide inside electrical devices and travel through wiring (not at the actual speed of electrons through wire, but fairly fast). Can monitor the function of devices while inside them. (Think 'sapient keylogger that can install itself over the power lines... but it can get bored and wander off'.) Also very effective at electrocuting the shit out of things. Derived from: A security system that used electric shocks to deter things that someone was stupid enough to let Aria just sit there and soak it up. (Used to yoink information on the trap setup from Leet's computers, drain the power from the collar on Sophia, destroy the bot, hide from the Undersiders.)

Simple Plans: Aria: Hey, I want to help you get out of here safely and screw with the people who did it. You in? Trio: 'kay.


	3. Another Chance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taylor isn't surprised when Emma, Madison, and Sophia end up playing in a non-voluntary game. Because it's her and her friends who were responsible for that.
> 
> Ending up in the game herself was a lot more surprising.

**~~Let's Break A Game~~ **

**Another Chance**

This stage of the plan didn't really require much of me. Mostly just relax and enjoy Aisha fucking me. Probably wouldn't have worked if she couldn't exclude me as an individual from her power, since I did have to play along a bit, but overall, it wasn't much work.

The shackles popped open, and I watched with carefully hidden enjoyment as my bullies recoiled away from 'me'. It was almost time...

That's when it became my turn to recoil as there was suddenly an explosion of feathers in front of me. What the fuck?

And then they disappeared, and there was a girl there who I'd never seen before. She seemed to assess the situation for a moment, before reaching for me.

No. She was reaching past me. Aisha was backpedaling now, but we couldn't move fast enough like this.

I knew exactly when the mystery girl made contact. Because that's when Aisha started screaming. Then her other hand came around, and I heard a hissing noise-

***

I officially had no idea what was going on. Aisha had apparently run off and left me here for some reason knowable only to her, I was having a hard time moving and couldn't figure out why, some crazy girl had her arms around my neck, and across from me...

Emma, Madison, and Sophia were staring at the crazy girl like she was crazy. I was feeling an uncomfortable but undeniable kinship with them right now.

Oh, and make that crazy girl -cape-, because how the hell else did you explain the thing with the feathers? Even if she wasn't wearing so much as a domino mask that could be called a costume. Just ordinary street clothes.

"Here, let me help you with that," she said. Her voice was warm and soothing and I couldn't really tell -what- she was doing, but by the end I could move around again. Thankfully, I wasn't actually naked under here, and could just pull my shorts back up from where Aisha had left them before she buggered off.

Mystery girl casually strolled over to the door, before turning around and saying "By the way, I'm Aria."

The rest of us shared looks (and it was very strange to feel myself included in that) before Aria continued "You coming?"

The others went for the door, and I was pretty much forced to follow.

I knew one safe path out of here - the way to get to the control room. The rest? I knew what -kinds- of things had been set up around here, but I hadn't had much direct involvement with the setup itself. I did know that a lot of the systems were automated.

That combination of facts did not make me feel any better. A lot of the things that had seemed funny or sexy when we were planning this suddenly seemed a lot more alarming standing on this side of the screen. But I didn't know how to get out of here without exposing my own involvement.

Maybe if I walked behind the others, something would grab them and I'd be able to get away. Aria was paying too much attention to just sneak off without a good distraction.

"Shouldn't we split up?" Sophia asked. She sounded a bit uncertain though. I could guess why she might want to get some space herself, but on the other hand, sticking with the obvious and friendly - if possibly crazy - cape had some things to say for it too.

"Never split the party," Aria replied. "Besides, we're already here."

Winslow was a shithole. But there were a few things the administration hadn't quite dared to neglect too much, and that even the gangs weren't stupid enough to mess with. High on that list was the fire escapes.

We couldn't actually electrify all the walls - way too much work. But Leet had come up with a way to crisscross wires across the outside of the building, enough to make things dangerous for Sophia even if she managed to get the collar off (which we couldn't rule out). If they actually managed to break down a wall, we were pretty much done anyway, but the windows and in particular the fire escapes were covered thoroughly. For anyone but Sophia the current should be plenty to make them back off, without being enough to cause injury. Well, unless they did something really stupid.

"Shouldn't we be looking for keys?" Madison said, nervously eyeing the wires. "I don't think we can get through this."

"Don't take what the enemy gives you. Unless you're me," Aria replied. And then she did something really stupid. She hauled open the window and more or less smashed her body against the wires. Not like she was trying to break through, just enough to push herself against as many of them as possible.

Emma and Madison screamed, and I nearly joined them. Look, even if she'd screwed up all our plans, she'd never done anything to me, and she'd been trying to help me based on what things looked like to her. I couldn't really wish on her... whatever this would do, it couldn't possibly be good.

Then I realized her body wasn't spasming, or even twitching. She was -snuggling-. And the noise she was making couldn't be called anything but a giggle.

What the fuck?

I have no idea how long we all just stood there, staring at this bizarre scene. Oh, and now Aria was humming.

I wondered what the other Undersiders were doing. With an unknown cape on the scene, it was too dangerous to try to continue, but they should still be able to watch us. I'm sure Brian and Lisa were doing some of the same safety-versus-identity calculations that I was, and had decided it wasn't worth the risk to intervene as long as Aria was friendly.

Finally she pulled away, and turned to us with a cat-that-ate-the-canary smile to rival one of Lisa's. "Hmmmm, that was delicious," she said. She grabbed the collar around Sophia's neck. "Better take care of this. Now hold still..." she said before grabbing the battery with her other hand and twisting in a way that the maker had apparently never anticipated, because the whole thing fell apart. Without shocking either of them, which I was pretty sure was not how it was supposed to work.

Then she closed her eyes, inhaled deeply...

And with a loud thunk from somewhere behind me, the building went dead. It'd been dim and quiet before, but there's a world of difference between that and being in a large building where the power has gone out completely.

Aria laughed as she started ripping the now-inert wires out of the way. "This way to the fabulous egress."

***

I was left alone with Aria after we got to the ground. The other three had run off in different directions, though all were decidedly away from Winslow. They hadn't talked or made any plans before going, so I wasn't sure what they were thinking. Maybe they just had different ideas of where to best find safety?

As for me, I still had the same problem as I had before - how to get away from this pleasant but questionably-sane cape without outing myself?

"You don't like those three very much, do you?"

I whipped my head over to look at her. The tone was calm, and her expression was calm... but given how she'd been acting before (and her apparent abilities), I couldn't help but think of it as the calm before the storm. I needed to be careful here. "... Not really."

"I thought so," she replied. "The other three, I could latch onto with a goal of getting the four of you out." Say what now? "But you just wanted to get away from them."

...

Was she implying that those three had actually started -caring- what happened to me at some point in there?

"I've had some bad experiences with them in the past," I replied. That was both entirely true and about the limit of what I was willing to share with a stranger.

"Hmmm. Well, maybe things will be better now." She turned to look up at the building we'd just exited with an expression that looked like nothing less than sheer, unadulterated lust. "Well then, let's see what I can get out of -you-..." She paused, before going blank again, and sighed. "What, really? Right now? And I can't even use the fun exit?"

Great, now she's talking to herself.

Aria turned back to me. "Looks like I've got to leave early. Well, good luck, Taylor," she said before disappearing in a cloud of feathers.

I felt a chill run through me.

_I'd never told her my name._

***

By the time I made it back to the other side of the building, the rest of the team had almost finished pulling out. Nobody was willing to risk the police getting called on us (normally not a huge worry in this area, but with a Ward involved we couldn't rely on that). So they'd abandoned a lot of the more mundane equipment. We'd had to agree to replace a good chunk of that to maintain good relations with the gamers, even if they'd accepted that no one could have predicted this outcome.

Aisha had gotten hit with some kind of combination paralytic and amnesiac drug, leaving her both unable to move and not having any idea what was going on. Lisa had managed to get Brian to haul her out of there by watching the cameras and giving him instructions over the radio, thankfully before Aria had blown every breaker in the building at once.

Oh, and apparently Aria had no difficulty seeing Aisha despite her power, which was how she'd been able to get the two of us separated so readily. That was concerning.

And then... nothing happened.

No one was looking at the Undersiders for this. It didn't really make sense for any of the other local gangs either, and an alliance of convenience was apparently not being considered. The currently favored theory was that some cell of the ABB had gotten creative, which of course was bullshit. Maybe a new trigger? No sign of any new tinkers around though. There were more theories, all bullshit.

The PRT seemed to care a lot more about the possibility that Shadow Stalker's identity had been compromised. According to Lisa, anyway. They weren't sure of it or they would probably have relocated her already, but they were definitely concerned. They had a lot of eyes on her, waiting to pounce if anyone tried to take advantage of knowing her secret identity. That would hurt Sophia more than us at this point, we weren't stupid enough to try anything now.

***

Maybe I was lying when I said nothing happened. Nothing particularly cape-related happened. Winslow was shut down for a couple days while the building was cleared and they got the power back on properly. So I couldn't say I'd gotten no benefit out of the whole debacle.

But it didn't last. I had to go back to school. And when I first saw Sophia... she nodded to me before going back to what she was doing.

What the hell?

And it didn't end there. I had a group project with Madison the next day, and she treated me pretty much like she treated any other random female classmate. And Emma was giving me the -weirdest- looks...

Six months ago I'd have been deliriously happy at this kind of treatment, but here and now I had to ask Lisa for help, because it was just making me paranoid. Apparently, sharing a stressful experience - such as, say, being kidnapped and escaping from a school full of an indeterminate number of traps and monsters - is the sort of thing that's been known to bring people together. And Sophia in particular had looked impressed at how quickly I'd 'pulled myself together' after Aria had 'killed the monster'.

On some level, they saw me as 'one of them' now, even if they didn't really know what to do about it.

I didn't know what to do about it either.

... Fuck, I'm doing it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "What would Aria do if she went into this scenario without her breaker ability?" is a question I'd asked myself before, but I didn't think I could do anything interesting with it... Until I pictured Aria seeing Taylor, thinking she was another victim, and dragging her along.
> 
> This also makes for a more suitable scenario to exist in the past of the Aria of Backflip, who I realized while writing it had not dealt with an 'evil twin' situation before.


End file.
